Product Description

The 1960s was a time of social and generational upheaval felt with particular intensity in the melting pot of New York City. A culture of corruption pervaded the New York Police Department, where payoffs, protection, and shakedowns of gambling rackets and drug dealers were common practice. The so-called blue code of silence protected the minority of crooked cops from the sanction of the majority.

Into this maelstrom came a working class, Brooklyn-born, Italian cop with long hair, a beard, and a taste for opera and ballet. Frank Serpico was a man who couldn't be silenced -- or bought -- and he refused to go along with the system. He had sworn an oath to uphold the law, even if the perpetrators happened to be other cops. For this unwavering commitment to justice, Serpico nearly paid with his life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76882 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
"Excellent." (Newsweek )

"An absorbing story of what one angry, honest man can do . told by a master of factual reporting." (Detroit News )

"Maas's reportage is detailed and of high narrative quality ...[Full of] tension and drama." (Rolling Stone )

"[A] raw and moving portrait." (Chicago Sun-Times )

Newsweek

"Excellent."

Chicago Sun-Times

"[A] raw and moving portrait."

Customer Reviews

GOOD COP...BAD COP...
The late Peter Maas was a master of investigative reporting. Nowhere are his skills more evident than in this story about Frank Serpico, a police officer who tried to rid the New York City Police Department of the corruption that was rampant amongst its rank and file. Eventually, Serpico's efforts led to the establishment of the Knapp Commission, which would do a large scale investigation of police corruption and the policies and procedures within the Police Department itself that would allow such to flourish. Unfortunately, his efforts initially fell, for the most part, upon deaf ears. Nothing of any real import was really done until Serpico was grievously wounded in a gun battle with a drug dealer in 1971 that left all of New York, including Serpico, wondering as to what really happened?

Serpico was a Brooklyn boy who had always looked up to law enforcement and grew up wanting to preserve and protect. Little did he know, until he actually joined the police department, that preserve and protect seemed to pertain to the bribery, graft, and extortion in which many police officers, at the time, engaged. Serpico's initial shock gave way to disillusionment, and he refused to accept the money that other officers took as part of their due. His naiveté was soon replaced by disgust at finding out how rife was the corruption within the New York City Police Department. That soon turned to anger, however, as no one seemed interested in cleaning up the cesspool of corruption in which he worked. Although he tried, all he got was the runaround, until his near fatal shooting.

This is a riveting account of Serpico's travails, and time has not diminished the author's riveting account of how Serpico took the system on. The author paints an interesting portrait of a man who was truly one of New York's finest cops. Although somewhat of a maverick and a loner, Serpico was a dedicated police officer, who only desired that his fellow officers follow the very same laws that they were to enforce. Serpico defied the system, and the system nearly defeated him. This book is simply a page-turner, and one that those who like the true crime genre will really enjoy.

Extraordinarily fascinating!
Serpico! The name that brings chills to my bones. Serpico and Donnie Brasco are my two heroes in the world of criminal justice. Serpico's life mission is not just cleaning out the bad guys, but bad guys posing as good guys, COPS! And the way he risks his life in the process, simply tells a story of a moral beam behind the corruption of the so called blue wall of silence.

Should be read by all Americans
Along with Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," this book should be familiar reading to all Americans. While the 1906 classic exposes the horrors of capitalism, this 1973 masterpiece details the corruption and graft in an institution we have been taught to believe is always noble and honest. The setting and scene is New York, the largest police force in the country.
Serpico finds the bad guys and brings them in for booking, only to have his fellow cops pander and play with the gangsters, as if the latter have a closer association than they do with Serpico. Throughout the organization of the force, corruption is rife. Little deals and major attitudes and processes that undermine the civil security force are nicely interwoven into this book, which details Serpico's path through the ranks from a cadet, to a beat cop, to a detective, until the last trial, when Serpico's shooting (possibly by his own force, an incident that opens the book) is more fully examined.
Horrible to contemplate, too credible to ignore, this book is a must for all Americans.